Interesting scenario...your thoughts please.

[Funforme]

I appreciate everyone's input and comments. Just for arguments sake, let's look at this from a different angle...

Can an employer request a drug test because the employee requested FMLA? Can they request a test while you're on leave? And if FMLA is requested for a medical "emergency" (I'm not saying my situation was an emergency, this is just for arguments sake) When exactly does leave start? That day? The moment the leave is requested? The law says something along the lines of "as soon as it's reasonably possible."

I know there's a big difference between going into your supervisor's office and saying I need leave to go to rehab and saying "my husband just had a heart attack, I'm leaving work now and don't know when I'll be back. I'll call you".
I guess what I'm getting at is the law says that I can request medical leave to go to drug rehab without retaliation. That same law says I can take leave if I'm going to have surgery (planned or otherwise), if my husband has a heart attack, or (if god forbid) one of my children were hurt. But with the latter examples, I would not be requested to take a drug test when requesting leave. Is that legally treating everyone the same? I really don't know and am curious what y'all think.


My other question is when an employee requests FMLA isn't the employer required to give that employee information explaining FMLA? I was requesting medical. I made that very clear. However, by the time I left the building I was on "administrative leave". I did call HR from rehab about a week later asking if I needed to fill out any fmla paper work and they said no because I was on administrative leave.

 

[ecmst12]

I suspected that you were a healthcare professional. Drug abuse in nursing is very common and most healthcare employers have a policy in place which allows employees to ask for help without being fired, but they are not REQUIRED to have such a policy. Being as lives are placed in your hands every day you come to work, standards and cautions should be higher. Being impaired at work, especially in such a high intensity area as labor and delivery, is hugely dangerous to your patients and to the hospital when it comes to liability. I hope you are able to get your stuff together and eventually be allowed to work again, but firing you really was the right thing to do.